Dwarfsoft [GPA]

So we had some Blade Chassis and implemented some Firmware upgrades. Surely this should not impact the blades themselves, or the OS on which they run? You’ve got to be kidding right. As soon as the Blade Chassis firmware has been upgraded we lost all four Broadcom NICs, and we had four new Broadcom NICs added in their place. This means that any IP Configuration has been lost and so has, in our case, Team configuration. Due to the four original NICs being removed, their Connection Names have also become unusable, because there are hidden devices that are still using those names.

Firstly, how do we remove devices via PowerShell. The Answer can be found on any Windows 7 workstation in the C:\Windows\Diagnostics\System\Device\CL_Utility.ps1. There is a function there called RemoveDevice.

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I’ve been busy working on a project that is implementing a SQL Geo-Cluster. One of the requirements was to modify the NIC bind order such that the order of preference is Production,Heartbeat,…,Microsoft Failover Cluster Virtual Adapter. Most of this can be achieved through the Network Adapter Advanced Configuration window (Start->run->ncpa.cpl->Advanced Menu->Advanced Settings…) but the Microsoft Failover Cluster Virtual Adapter is a Hidden adapter and needs to be handled separately.

The original Suggestion from the Design document is to run “wmic nicconfig get description,settingid”. This list is used to get the SettingId of the NIC where the description is “Microsoft Failover Cluster Virtual Adapter”. The SettingId is then checked and moved in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\tcpip\Linkage\Bind. The line in the Multi String that equals “\Device\” needs to be moved to the last line.

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I haven’t had a chance yet to go back to designing Breakout properly, or any other game related projects. I have, however, been cabling up the house so I can start using my new office.

Doing a cable drop in this house was a nightmare. Firstly, it’s on a slab so I couldn’t run cable below the house. Secondly, there are too many beams in the roof that cover cavity space, so I had to drill through about 4-5 inches of timber before reaching the cavity. Thirdly, there is not 1 noggin in the wall, there are two, so I had to do some massive drill bit extension to do the boring. Lastly, a couple of the extension bits I bought SUCKED! When you pull them up they ‘press’ the release mechanism, so I had extension bits in the wall with my spade bit – not fun to get out >:( .

I had never run Network cable myself before (except Coax) so crimping the RJ45 ports was a new experience. Ended up being just as easy as using the Krone tool on the phone frames at work. I figured it would be. Hopefully now that I have moved into my new home-office I can get back to work on my XNA Game Development work.

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Interesting moves happening at work. Today I moved into a Networks role. Originally it was intended that I be doing 80% Servers and 20% Networks due to the solid input I have provided within the Server team to date. This has now been changed to 80% Networks and 20% Servers. The guy who I am filling in for didn’t like the idea of his role being technically abandonned, and I agree with him. There will definitely be some Server Action from my end anyway, because I have a keen interest in running with a few ideas.

Trav and I have approached the Server team with an idea on distributing apps more effectively, relying mainly on network addresses of the PCs to correctly locate an application server. This brings up a few logistical hurdles. (continue reading…)